The Encyclopedia Of Demons And Demonology

250 Surin, Jean-Joseph
The Lord’s Prayer and holy water also were said to
work a cure.
FRANCESCO-MARIA GUAZZO wrote of one alleged succubus
incident in Compendium Maleficarum (1608), in
which a succubus forced herself on a young man near
Aberdeen, Scotland. The succubus visited him in bed
every night and stayed until dawn. The young man
claimed that he tried to get rid of the succubus, but to no
avail. Finally, the local bishop ordered him to go away to
another place and devote himself to prayer and fasting.
After several days, the young man said the succubus left
him.
At the end of the 17th century, an odd lawsuit was
tried in court in Posen, Germany. A young man forced his
way into the cellar of a locked home and was later found
dead on the threshold. Demons then set up housekeeping
inside and created severe disturbances. The owners of the
home were frightened into leaving.
Local exorcists failed to expel the demons, and so an
expert was summoned, Rabbi Joel Baal Shem of Zamosz.
He was able to induce the demons to disclose their identity.
They claimed the house belonged to them, and they
demanded the opportunity to prove it in a court of law.
The case was tried with Rabbi Joel and an invisible demon
advocate, who could be heard.
According to the demons, the previous owner of the
home had engaged in intercourse with a succubus, who
had borne hybrid children. The man was persuaded by a
rabbi to break off his affair, but the demon demanded that
the cellar be given to it and the offspring as inheritance.
The man and all his heirs were now dead, and the demon
children demanded possession of the house.
The new homeowners said they had lawfully purchased
the house. The demon children were not legitimate “seed
of men” and so had no legal rights. In addition, the demon
had forced the previous owner into sexual relations.
The court decided against the demons, saying that
their abodes were deserts and wastelands, not the homes
of men. Rabbi Joel performed EXORCISMs that drove away
the demons.
FURTHER READING:
Guazzo, Francesco-Maria. Compendium Maleficarum. Secaucus,
N.J.: University Books, 1974.
The Malleus Maleficarum of Heinrich Kramer and James
Sprenger. New York: Dover, 1971.
Remy, Nicholas. Demonolatry. Secaucus, N.J.: University
Books, 1974.
Surin, Jean-Joseph (1600–1665) French priest and
mystic who became involved in the LOUDUN POSSESSIONS
of Ursuline nuns during 1630–34. Father Jean-Joseph
Surin became possessed himself, and his health was
adversely affected for the rest of his life.
Surin was unsuited to deal with DEMONIACs because
of a neurotic temperament brought on by years of ascetic
practices. He probably should have avoided the case, but
he felt compelled, even obsessed, to do battle with DE-
MONs. He spent his entire life as a virgin.
Surin was drawn to the religious life at an early age.
He was reared in a cloister and attended the College of
Bordeaux, where he was a contemporary of Father UR-
BAIN GRANDIER, who left the school in 1617. Grandier was
burned at the stake during the Loudun Possessions. Surin
practiced self-denial during his early years as a priest, denying
himself food, sleep, and social contact. He served
in Rouen and then spent four years in the fishing village
of Marennes, where he was director to two women who
had remarkable visions and ecstasies that captured his
attention.
By the time he arrived in Loudun on December 15,
1634, Grandier had been executed. Surin, at age 34, was
in poor health, suffering severe headaches, muscle pain,
melancholy, and attacks of depression and confusion. He
had numerous psychosomatic complaints, and the slightest
physical activity brought on severe pain. He constantly
perceived himself as beset by all sorts of spiritual
agonies and pressures. Perhaps most problematic was
his credulity: He believed everything he was told, especially
about people’s spiritual experiences. Thus, he was
inclined never to doubt the claims of the possessed nuns
at Loudun.
Unlike many of his fellow Jesuits, Surin was indeed
convinced that JEANNE DES ANGES and other nuns were
genuinely possessed. He wrote that he had engaged in
combat with “four of the most potent and malicious devils
in hell” and that God “permitted the struggles to be
so fierce and the onslaughts so frequent that exorcism
was the least of the battlefields, for the enemies declared
themselves in private both day and night in a thousand
different ways.”
Surin wrote candidly of the sexual temptations he
himself felt working closely with demoniacs who convulsed
in suggestive ways and spoke frankly of their demonic
copulations.
At first, Jeanne did her best to avoid him and his attempts
at EXORCISM. Surin was convinced he could help
Jeanne and tried to force spiritual instruction upon her.
Day after day, he tolerated the most wretched and insulting
behavior from her.
Finally, he made a fatal mistake: he prayed to suffer in
Jeanne’s stead and to take on her POSSESSION. His prayers
were answered, and on January 19, 1635, he began to feel
the effects of OBSESSION. By Good Friday, April 6, he was
exhibiting signs of possession. He felt that the demons
had passed from Jeanne and into him. He was both elated
at his success and plunged into the deepest despair over
his fate.
In May 1635, Father Surin wrote of his torments to
Father D’Attichy, a Jesuit in Rome, saying:
Things have gone so far that God has permitted, for
my sins, I think, something never seen, perhaps, in the
Church: that during the exercise of my ministry, the